500 words a day on whatever I want

Sandra Bland

Sandra Bland (1987-2015), an unarmed, suburban, middle-class Black American woman, died in police custody on July 13th 2015 – three days after a traffic stop.

The police say she hanged herself. Her family and friends do not believe that for a second.

On July 9th, she left suburban Chicago, where she grew up, to drive to Prairie View A&M University in Texas, where she went to university and where she was to start work doing student outreach.

On July 10th, after she arrived in Prairie View, Texas, the police stopped her for failing to signal while changing lanes.

The police said she became “combative”. They arrested her for “assault on a public servant.”

An eyewitness, her friend Malcom Jackson, said the police were forceful from the start:

“After he pulled her out of the car, [he] forced her and tossed her to the ground, knee to the neck, and arrested her.”

Citizen videoshows her pinned the ground being arrested by two police officers. You can hear her say:

“You just slammed my head into the ground. Do you not even care about that? I can’t even hear.”

You can also hear her saying “motherfucker”.

On July 13th, three days later, before her family could bail her out, she was found dead. Jailers, who are supposed to check on their prisoners at least once an hour, gave her breakfast at 7.00am, talked to her at 8.00am, and found her dead at 9.00am. The police said it was “self-inflicted asphyxiation.”

That very same jail also had a “hanging” in 2012.

Within those three days the police could have easily looked her up on Facebook and seen her video series #SandySpeaks, where she speaks about racism and – police violence.

On her Facebook page it said:

“Now legalize being Black in America.”

Her family wants to get an independent autopsy done.

Prairie View A&M is a part of the Texas A&M system. It was founded during Reconstruction and produces more Black architects than any place in the nation. It is where Mr T. and Terry Ellis of En Vogue went. It is over 90% Black in a town that is over 90% Black.

But it is in Waller county, which is 71% White, a place of small towns out in cotton country, north-west of Houston. And the power structure is racist:

In 2007, Glenn Smith, now the county’s police chief but then the police chief of Hempstead, the county seat, was suspended without pay for two weeks and put on probation for six months for his “humiliation and mistreatment of young African American males.” That did not stop him and he was fired.

In 2014, Elton Mathis, the county’s district attorney, was accused of texting, “My hounds ain’t even started yet dumb ass,” to Rev. Walter Pendleton. Pendleton had asked for information on prosecution rates by ethnicity in the county, saying that Mathis practised “selective prosecution”. Mathis: “You are too stupid to know what that word means.” Mathis stands by his words.

The police are investigating themselves. Mathis would be the one to prosecute them – or selectively not.

#WhatHappenedToSandraBland.

– Abagond, 2015.

Update (July 24th): The dashcam video was made public. In it, Brian Encinia, the arresting officer, abuses his power, threatening her with a taser (“I will light you up!”) to arrest her and, once she was already in handcuffs, apparently threw her to the ground (off screen).

There is also a jailhouse video of the hallway in front of her cell when they discover that she is dead.

The county is making bits of the autopsy public (why not the whole thing?). They are pushing hard, too hard, the idea it was a suicide. The family is getting their own autopsy done.

Some say that in the mugshot (pictured above) she was either dead or lying on the floor. She was arrested on Friday, called her family on Saturday, but not on Sunday as expected. She was found dead the following morning.

The Justice Department is “monitoring” the investigation.

Update (July 28th): The district attorney has appointed two lawyers to act as “outside” observers. They have the power to investigate and bring findings before the grand jury.

The medical examiner says that Sandra Bland had high levels of marijuana in her blood at the time of death – so high that she had to have taken it while in jail!

Update (December 22nd): The grand jury will charge no one for Sandra Bland’s death. They heard more than eight hours of evidence. Bland’s mother: “I simply can’t have faith in a system that’s not inclusive of my family.” Source: NBCBLK.

I still remember freshman year when Waller police came to talk to us. They made sure to send the Black cops. Black, white, brown or this imaginary purple person white people always bring up, a cop is a cop.

Signed. This is sickening and fucking infuriating. If we think things are bad now, wait until these parasites get control of the internet and people can’t share information freely. What kind of disgusting, warped bubble do you have to live in to think anyone would believe she did that to herself and to treat her the way she did from the get go? Just diseased people.

God rest Ms. Bland and my prayers go out to her family. These needless deaths are frightening enough on their own, but what’s really scary is knowing if it were not for these events being videotaped we’d have never heard about them at all. They would have been covered up the way these hate filled deaths of blacks at the hands of police have been covered up for decades. I have decided that I will video tape ANYTHING I see of a police encounter with a black person that looks in the least way inappropriate.

You’d think that by now these criminal, racist cops would realize that these days just about everyone over the age of 15 has a video tape camera on their person at all times: their cell phone. You’d think they’d realize that what they used to do in private, and what was kept private by their peers, is now subject to be captured on video and broadcast over the entire planet. I wish they were smart enough to realize that. Many of these needless deaths would not have happened. Unfortunately, they’re not smart enough to figure that out. That’s how blind and stupid this type of hatred is. Racism by definition is stupid—and so are they.

She was suffering from depression back in March, Jim – four months ago. And that depression stemmed mainly from her unemployment, a problem that had been remedied once Prairie View hired her. She did not kill herself.

“This should be a message to the black middle class sheep who keep believing their status will save them. Obviously not.”

Hey there! Indeed. But denial is an amazing thing. I know quite a few black folks who have all the right credentials and make a whole lot of money ($500+K and greater) and no matter how many times they got DWBed or passed up by cabs or followed around stores where they could buy anything, they still felt so long as they weren’t like those “other kind” of black folks nothing “really bad” would happen to them.

Anybody in police lockup is the legal responsibility of the supervising officers, period. There’s no way they aren’t behind this one way or another. By negligence at the very least but obviously by the method we all know in which she was taken out but every anchor on Fox News is lining up to deny.

Ha! Yep, look at old boy Cosby. The poster child for the lot of them. He’s probably still bewildered that they’re after him rather than those pants sagging hippity hopity pound cake stealing people. He’s probably doubly confused that nobody is even looking at his boy the OG King Mack Daddy Big Pimpin’ extraordinare himself – Hugh Hefner – who has been living an even bigger la vida loca than Cosby, and making money off of it, for 60 years! Funny how a lot of this supposedly happened at Playboy clubs and the mansion but ain’t nobody even glancing at Hugh.

“What kind of disgusting, warped bubble do you have to live in to think anyone would believe she did that to herself and to treat her the way she did from the get go? Just diseased people.” @Gen, what type of Bubble indeed!? You nailed it right on the proverbial head!

I’m getting as cold as Pluto towards whites.
I literally don’t care anymore when tragedy strikes them and they die.
I overheard on the news yesterday that earth is losing the magnetic field’s protection and melanoma rates are increasing.
I lit up inside. Any way to speed it up?
Future generations may yet be free of them, even if most of us sleep.
I’m so over the lot.
Bye!

We’d join the others who’ve lived alongside them on this very land.
Do we walk obliviously on the path those vanished people trod?
Do we welcome the final destination?

I honestly don’t know how some black people F with them. Y’all gotta explain that s*** to me. I sort of understand being able to look past it with someone you’re otherwise acquainted with but I’ll never understand actually seeking them out as a preference. Whose ideal lover is a wraith?

That pallid translucent skin is like walking death.
Their actions turn allegory into actuality.
It has often meant death to us, in fact.
It reddens like a stop sign when their emotions get aroused.
Nature’s STAY AWAY! Aposematism!
Yet we embrace.
Does love conquer death?
No.
If you love death,
You die.

You just know they were enraged and scarlet-colored as they suffocated that sistah to death.
She was outspoken against police brutality and those kkkillers caused another fatality.
The power of her spirit making her strong;
She told them, she told them they were doing her wrong.
“Cower, in my hell! Don’t utter the truth!”
“I’ll shut you up yet N”, roared the brute.
The same entitled rage that fueled James Holmes
Took Sandra Bland’s life through no fault of her own.
Then the arrogant demon straight-up lied
And claimed she committed suicide.
Just like all the times the cops pulled the trigger
“Nobody will care that we killed a N”

You say:
“They’re not all bad”
“I have friends among them”
Hard to imagine German Jews
Had no friends among the Christians.
Once the apparatus is in place,
Death is impersonal and remote.
The tipper of the first domino has rotted in the ground
And his beneficiaries just declined to shift the others
All hands are clean.
All eyes averted.
“We never owned slaves”
“I had friends among them”

This is just a raw expression.
I’m just typing it as it comes.
No filter. I’m sick of this.
America fought for independence over less.
I feel like a tipping point has to come.
Black people are capable of collective violence too.
Reluctant, but capable.
America despises the undeserved gift.
Spurns it with provocation.
How long?
How long before this country is as outwardly disturbed as it deserves to be?

I’msaddened by Sandra’s death and the media spin that’s already in play. Including from what should be considered some of OUR media outlets…She killed herself? Really? She was depressed? Really? Bringing up her other supposed “incidents” from her college days? She was being combative? hmmmmm… I’m tired of the victim blaming MO.. We need to hold media accountable….

it’s not easy to hang yourself in jail, there would be plastic bags on the block for commisary/food garbage etc., but everything is ‘nerfed’ so you can’t have a hook to hang stuff on? maybe off the bunk, with a twisted plastic bag? but why would she do that.

Now watch how many (racist and/or brainwashed) fools come along and hype up that tiny video clip the news are steady broadcasting where Sandra says she had depression, etc. as if that alone is enough to write this situation off as a definite suicide.

Watch how many people will cling to this clip as a reason to be in the utmost denial about anything else surrounding Sandra, what she was doing, what she was about and what she was setting out and moving forward to do…

This case makes no sense whatsoever. Here’s this smart, college-educated woman who takes what looks like a good job, moves across the country, just to kill herself in a matter of days? Over a traffic violation? Possibly depression? I call bs. To say what happened to Ms. Bland is very upsetting is a gross understatement. I hope she gets the justice she deserves. RIP Sandra.

Just one question for abagond: While doing research for this story, did you come across the references to Ms. Bland recently saying she was depressed and had PTSD?

Maybe you can make a case that she still wouldn’t have killed herself in this situation, and that’s fine. However, I see a lot of stories like this that seem to leave out key information that would help present a more balanced picture of the situation….

Why not present all the evidence and let your readers consider everything?

Deliberately withholding information is not exactly lying, but it’s close…

You could say that Sandra Bland posted her #IfIDieInPoliceCustody even before the hastag existed.

Not to take away from the personal loss of Sandra but her death, just like the death of the Charleson nine, is a symptom of a much larger problem. It’s not police brutality. That itself is a symptom. It’s not the Confederate Cloth. That is a mere symbol.

It’s almost like we’ve been playing a game of whack-a-mole. The underlying mechanism will continue to generate all the ills. If whites can, they will because they have a group definition of non-whites as subhuman and have acquired the power to control or destroy them. Look at history. Whether a century ago or a few years ago; whether it’s 1920s Tulsa or New Orleans after 2005’s Katrina, the evidence is there. It doesnt lie.

Disarming hypocritical displays aside, people who aren’t white are like pests to whites. The force of that conviction has set the overall tone of white interactions with others. Why are *they* on this land we just found? Why are they in my country? Why are they in my neighbourhood? Why are they using my community’s pool? Why are they attending my child’s school?

What do you do with pests occupying your Lebensraum;
What do you do with pests interfering with your Manifest Destiny?
Confine them: Apartheid, Reservations, Ghettos.
Limit reproduction: Secret sterilization, (symbolic) lynching castrations
Sicken them: Smallpox laced “gifts” of blankets, AIDS (?)
Eradicate them!
How often has that happened?
North America? South America? The Caribbean? Namibia? Australia? Tasmania? Germany?
Their group behavior is “logical” if you start from the same axioms as whites.

However, the viewpoint that the evidence reveals means that we are deaing with a monstrous cultural entity. That is scary. It’s also entirely out of harmony with our outlook. We simply can’t relate. It doesn’t make sense to us so we can’t believe it. They literally made us into disposable material things yet we can’t comprehend. We have to separate their pattern of behavior into aberrant acts. The full picture is too overwhelming.

I sympathize with black people in this regard. I really do. Yet at the same time, it’s clear to me that if we don’t unify and protect ourselves nobody will. The full realization of what we’re up against makes that obvious. That’s the only reason I talk to people about this stuff. In some ways we’re self-destructing as a group while “out there” we still face racism. We thought we could completely trade our separateness for access like some white ethnic groups did. We aint white though. Half a century later we have less of our own specific s*** and still face embedded, if illegal, racism. In some ways we’re more free (eg. to spend at white establishments) but we overestimated the significance and surrendered our defensive group consciousness.

I think we’re finding it again in a 21st century way and I hope we build it stronger than ever.

..Saw those tweets last night. Abagond and really could not help but be saddened by the former-yet, gladdened a bit by the latter as I was reading (and relating to, as I’m mixed myself) with the #GrowingUpBlack memes as many of them summed up my childhood experiences to a tee! lolol

“The predominantly black Hempstead City Council voted to suspend Smith for two weeks without pay after viewing videotapes and hearing allegations of racism from local residents against him and the other four officers.
After a lengthy council meeting that lasted until 2 a.m. today, council also placed Smith on probation for six months and ordered him to take anger management classes but declined to take action on the other four officers.

Herschel Smith, president of the Waller County Leadership Council, called the disciplinary action given to Smith, “a slap on the hands.”
“He got off way too lightly considering his humiliation and mistreatment of young African American males,” Herschel Smith said.”

How does a guy like this keep getting rehired???
(Don’t answer that question)

I was about to say “crazy” and I had to catch myself.
It’s not crazy, it’s consistent.

The one that beat up Floyd Dent and planted drugs on him was tried previously for planting evidence. The one that murdered Tamir Rice was fired from a previous job for being “emotionally immature” and having “dismal” gun skills. The one that gunned down Walter Scott in cold blood had two previous formal complaints against him.

On my commute home on the train all everyone could talk about was Sandra Bland. This is just too scary when another black person is killed and it’s becoming too frequent. This could be any of us in black bodies here in America. Going about our everyday activities and something like a simple traffic violation and you end up dead at the hands of some racist cop.

I watched maybe a dozen of her videos but did not come across the PTSD one.

Looking back through my sources, they did not bring up “PTSD” or “depression” either.

From what I saw of her videos, she did not strike me as someone who would kill herself after just a few days in jail. She believed God was with her but also that God would test her. She knew how dangerously racist the police can be. Was she always in a great mood? No. But who is?

And, by the way, in the US the suicide rate among Black women is rock bottom, 9% of the rate for White men. How many White men hang themselves after just three days in jail?

“On my commute home on the train all everyone could talk about was Sandra Bland. This is just too scary when another black person is killed and it’s becoming too frequent. This could be any of us in black bodies here in America. Going about our everyday activities and something like a simple traffic violation and you end up dead at the hands of some racist cop.”

Of course, no one on the news is going to call this an act of terrorism – even though that is the effect. Given the history of Waller county and the history of US policing of Black bodies, I would say it was the INTENDED effect.

I am trying to understand white psychopathy and I am failing dismally.

It is incomprehensible to me that white male serial and mass murderers in the USA are treated better than innocent un armed Black women .

The USA wants to install itself as the world’s champion of human rights, yet it is waging a war ( amongst a long list of other domestic and international human rights abuses) against its’ own unarmed, defenceless Black citizenry.

What i am observing is what is considered an act of terrorism in regards to black people in this country? The Charleston church killings by racist Dylan Root and now the death of Sandra Bland in jail at the hands of racist police in comparison to the Chattanoga shootings.

@abagond
”
And, by the way, in the US the suicide rate among Black women is rock bottom, 9% of the rate for White men. How many White men hang themselves after just three days in jail?
”

I was just about to post about this. I just read an article which said that the Army was studying black women to try to understand why their suicide rates are so low. They want to apply what they learn to veterans.

”
Black women have the lowest rates of suicide in the country, and although it’s not completely understood why, Veterans Affairs officials hope to re-create elements of black female culture that may help stop military veterans from killing themselves.

Women – particularly black women – provide each other social support and encouragement categorized by the opportunity to speak honestly with their peers, said Jan Kemp, mental health director for suicide prevention at the VA.
”

I don’t even want to give the suggestion that Sandra Bland committed suicide the time of day.

It’s quite amazing that black people have the lowest suicide rates despite being targeted for destruction by age-old systems. It really says something positive about us; about our strength and resilience. Even when I think about the things Africans did before slavery, I’m extremely proud to be the descendants of people who survived a multi-generational holocaust. Our ancestors were not broken; they lived to make us possible. We won’t be broken by less.

Also, the whole Sandra Bland situation stared with “Driving While Black”. I mean, when you’re stopped on a quiet street for not signalling you know it’s just a pretext for further investigation. The police attention we get due to our supposed criminality and drug use is total rubbish. It’s another excuse to rubberstamp our harrassment. Despite being depicted as “druggies” and being disproportionately arrested and imprisoned, African Americans are actually the less likely to be using drugs than whites.http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/07/study-whites-more-likely-to-abuse-drugs-than-blacks/

”
Black youth are arrested for drug crimes at a rate ten times higher than that of whites. But new research shows that young African Americans are actually less likely to use drugs and less likely to develop substance use disorders, compared to whites, Native Americans, Hispanics and people of mixed race.

“Our goal is to alert people to the burden of drug problems and also to how some of our concern about who has these problems may not be true,” says Dr. Dan Blazer, senior author of the study and a professor of psychiatry at Duke University. “There’s a perception among many individuals that African Americans as a group — regardless of socioeconomic status — tend to abuse or use drugs at higher rate and this [does not support] that.”
”

”
A new study suggests that individuals with light eyes are at a higher risk for alcohol dependency than those with darker eyes, adding further evidence to the idea that alcoholism has a genetic component.
”

I wonder if they’ll find a racism gene or a totally mother****ing psychopathically EVIL gene linked to pale skin. Does it have a “genetic component”?

lol

This is why I’m always preaching that black people don’t have a major problem except being held captive, globally, by a bunch of degenerates who’re forcing us to deal with the s*** they keep flinging our way. If we’re managing under this situation imagine if we didn’t have to deal with it? What would be be like? Once we wake up, en masse, to what our REAL problem is, may whomever they serve help them.

I know they are thinking that. That is why we can’t get any peace in this system of white supremacy racism.

“Black women are the Key to Helping Prevent Suicide in White Veteran Men”, what a headline that is! If this wasn’t a certified article, I would be inclined to believe that it was a posting from the “Onion”. lbvs It kinds of put into validity the theory that white folks truly do need, and even want Black folks around them in order to better their life situations-whether they want to Openly admit this or not! The so-called “superior king” of the Earth needs us lowly Black/Mixed Black women for assistance in the areas of strength, durability, etc. Wow, just wow don’t that just beat alL?

Sidenote: Anyone else notice how butthurt the white folks were about the success of the #GrowingUpBlack twitter page? So unoriginal and mad because the “darkies” weren’t giving zero fuqs about them on a page about Black nostalgic childhood(s)! lolol

Indeed, Sharinalr and in addition to that what they wanted more than anything was to be let into “the sandbox” to play this fun game with the Black kids-and got mad because #1) They were/are lousy at creating Original “games/trends” themselves, and most of all they Cannot stand to not be the center of everything as they believe it is their right to butt into everyone’s business!

..This reminds me of a time when I lived in the awful, awful state of AZ. a few years ago-me and some fam were in the pool (the only non-whites who lived there) and this bratty azz lil’ gurl was with her parents, and she started Screaming and screaming in an effort to get our attention and damn near blew a gasket because her ruse did not work. We instead laughed amongst ourselves because we Knew what she was trying to do, and instead her parents just told her to be quiet as they look flabbergasted and perplexed as to why their daughter was suddenly behaving this way. But, my fam and I understood that she was interested in having us POC give her blonde-self attention (that most likely others in her circle do, just because she is supposed to be the epitome of what people “should” worship), and when we enjoyed ourselves and Ignored her it drove that gurl absolutely nuts-much like the adult versions of folks just like her! Tee Hee..

So what about the medical examiner isn’t it possible he/she could participating in a cover up as well? That whole municipality is corrupt. They could be lying about Sandra Bland committing suicide but i would think it would be illegal to do that.

Oh? I thought our honesty..I mean “attitude” was “abrasive” and our durability and strength made us non-women and generally terrible people to be around. Who would have thought machismo and passive aggressive BS wasn’t healthy! 😛

In the US, men have much higher suicide rates than women, even among Whites. By race, White and Native Americans have much higher suicide rates than Black, Asian or Latino Americans. So the difference between White men and Black women is huge – a factor of ten or so.

Because of television and racist stereotypes, we think of gun violence as being mainly between young Black men, but the biggest users and victims are older White men – killing themselves. That stuff does not make the news or make for a good Hollywood film – or support ideas of White male superiority.

It is frightening to know that u could be one minor traffic stop away from death. A few years ago my family and I went out to dinner and when we were driving home my brother got pulled over, me and my other brother were in the car and my parents were in theirs.

The cop was very rude as soon as my brother pulled over he was having an attitude and saying no don’t pull over here go over there. Then once my brother moved the car the cop started saying I pulled u over for changing lanes without a signal, he had his hand on his holster most of the time. Then he started asking about his car and asking what’s wrong with ur car? what’s that light back there? my brother told him nothing was wrong with his car and that i was watching tv on the dvd player. Once it was all over not even 30 seconds later he was pulling someone else over and they also had a dvd player headrest thing.

Once my brother totaled his car and got another one he wasn’t being pulled over for dumb stuff as much. They do profile down here if u have rims or anything that looks “urban” they will stop u but meanwhile white folks can have some monster truck looking f 150s and nobody bats an eye.

Watching Melissa Harris-Perry and Sandra Bland’s sister and the attorney for the family. The question was asked even if a motorist is so called “mouthing off” that is not against the law. The next question asked was why did she have to get out of her car. All he should have done was issue her a warning and let her go on her way. But given the racist culture of that town the cop was angry that this black woman was cursing him. That’s what angered him. If Sandra Bland had been white she would not have been arrested. Probably wouldn’t have been made to get out of her car and arrested. The attorney for Sandra Bland’s family said this is police misconduct on the part of the arresting officer. The family of Sandra Bland need answers why their loved one is dead. We all want to know What happened to Sandra Bland?

I don’t believe the suicide bs , it makes me sad and angry. People want to use and abuse black bodies yet can’t understand why we feel the way we do. They wanna stereotype black women as being bitter and angry yet I don’t see black women shooting sht up.

They want to study black women to see why our suicide rates are low to help them? Well let me help u with that, maybe it is the same thing that the media blames for all the ills of the black community, black culture. Or maybe it is our family and faith that keeps us going. Perhaps we have adapted better because of the way we are raised and the way we have had to learn to survive being black and female.

Study all u want unless u can recreate black women experiences u will fail and I highly doubt they will want to hear black women talk about our experiences let alone experience them. More proof that they do not care about black women but how black women can be of service to them. You rarely report or care about black women being killed and do not care to fix it yet u want to use black women to fix ur problem? U want to use black women for medical advancement but yet u are against the advancement of black people? U will use black women like Henrietta Lacks, or that evil guy that used black women for gynecology experiments, but u cannot hear us without calling us angry and bitter. I say f that if we are too angry and bitter to be listened to then we are too angry and bitter to help u. Got us being the mules and the experiments. Then u wanna call us manly, no get some feminine white woman to study they are the standard of beauty after all and isn’t beauty all that matters when u judge women, so why stop now.

All these movies of white saviors and u wanna come to us yet will not portray us as anything more than criminal. if u can portray whites as saviors saving us poor darkies why not save urselves surely if we are too dumb to save ourselves we cannot be of any help to u.

I am a strong advocate of camera phones good somebody captured the little bit of what went down with Sandra Bland and the arresting officer. They know they are being watched. I wonder if there hadn’t somebody watching the arresting officer would have brutalized Bland more than he did. It was bad enough he slammed her head and she let him know he was being rough. Camera phones are a necessity for black citizens in regards to having contact with law enforcement.

Mary, I think this abusive cop behavior crosses over racial lines. Cops in general will basically twist, exaggerate and break the law in order to get revenge on citizens who do not give them the respect they feel they deserve. Their basic idea is, “I can make your life hell… I can throw you in jail and all I have to say is that you’ve resisted arrest… so you better bow down before me!”

Sure, cops are slower to take this tack with White people when they appear to have more power. It is seldom done in rich and powerful communities, where the residents have the ability to bring a world of hurt on the officers for their misconduct. But everybody else is fair game! tHe job of policing attracts some good people, but it also attracts a lot of immature men who are on power trips.

@King: I remember when my cousin was in law enforcement in a very affluent part of the city he was mention how the rich white people would hurl racial epithets at him and there was nothing he could do about it. Given the racial history of that town it is known for it’s segregation in Hempstead. I get what you are saying. But during the segment on Melissa Harris-Perry the attorney and a panelist were giving the history of that town. The cemetery is even segregated. I agree with your post it makes a lot of sense to me and helps me to understand what police culture is about

It was also mentioned on the MHP Sandra Bland segment about how black women committing suicide is so low it’s nil. I believe that was the same thing Abagond and some of the posters on this forum mentioned as well.

Oh yeah, I definitely agree that there IS a racial component, because the same immature jerk on a power trip can also be a racist, especially in a racist environment! BUT it would be a mistake to think that this is **unique** to Black people who mouth off because it isn’t. Cops will attack anyone who seems to challenge their authority if they think they can get away with the abuse. But sure, you are more likely to get taken down faster if you are Black.

I remember years ago seeing a drunk White girl mouthing off to the police in a parking lot. I remember thinking… wow she’s lucky that she’s White with a mouth like that! A few seconds later, the cops had had enough and one of them slammed her head, face first, into the hood of her boyfriend’s car, breaking her nose! And this was in a White upper middle-class neighborhood! So, I’m aware of the racial imbalance, but I also think that it’s a question of the Cops thinking they are a special class who are above the law with EVERYBODY.

I unfortunately missed the MHP segment with Sandra’s family. I did however see a clip where her attorney mentioned what he saw from the police dash cam.

Sounds like the officer was bothered with the way Sandra was speaking and forced her out of the car… That is a policy violation right there. He could have just given her the warning and gone on his way. Also, how did she have time to “assault” anyone as they claim? I can’t wait for the independent investigation findings to come out. These officers need to be held accountable for her death….

I don’t need them to say anything though. It’s obvious that the whole affair reeks of police brutality. How does an unarmed woman even assault an armed pig from inside her car? Am I to believe that Sandra Bland, having interviewed successfully for a new job, was stopped by police and came charging out of her car like a rodeo bull? Some racist idiots would probably believe that but she wasn’t shot dead on the spot so we know it didn’t happen that way. He yanked her out the the vehicle and slammed her to the ground just like they did to Floyd Dent. I can basically guarantee that the dashcam video is indefensible which is why they’re coming out and saying that “procedure was violated” during the stop.

@King
“The job of policing attracts some good people, but it also attracts a lot of immature men who are on power trips.”

It likely attracts more of the bad ones and any good people have to fit in with the culture or leave the force. I found an article from 1986 which said that only 1 in 5 hopefuls made it on the Chigaco Police force. Sixteen percent failed screening for illegal drugs, 15% failed a written psych test, 25% failed oral psych interviews, 10% of those left failed physical exams, and 10% failed due to problems uncovered during background checks.http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-11-12/news/8603250224_1_police-recruits-police-officers-police-academy

It’s interesting that the majority were deemed psychologically unfit. Nowadays, I think it’s relatively easy to find out what to say during psych evalutations to have a better chance of passing. The one that murdered Tamir Rice failed written cognitive exams at several departments but he did pass his psych evaluation where he was hired. Despite that the deputy chief later recommended he be fired because he was “not mature enough in his accepting of responsibility or his understanding the severity of his loss of control”http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/29191-evaluating-police-psychology-who-passes-the-test#

I watched a video a while ago that mentioned a book by a police veteran named Norm Stamper called Breaking Rank. In it he mentioned that he heard other officers call murders of prostitutes and black people “misdemeanor murders” and they used an invented radio code for them: NHI or No Human Involved. In one department he heard incidents involving black people being referred to as 11-13s; that is the code for an injured animal. Their actions don’t occur in a vacuum but is nurtured by a culture in which black people are dehumanized.

Quite frankly, I think the police job attracts way more crappy people who want a sense of power, like that crazed vigilante Zimmerman, than people who want to do something positive. Furthermore the police are going to be racist because it is an institution needed to maintain “order” in a society that is fueled by inequality. They’re modern slave patrols.

Then that racist POS Sheriff Glenn Smith who was fired in 2008 racism, brutality allegations. He was on the news saying “It’s the same thing all over again family members just don’t want to accept the truth about their love ones.” I wanted to throw my bedroom slipper at the television screen.

The symbolism of Obama might have simultaneously re-energized the white supremacists and pacified black people and other POC. In other words, we’re more likely, as a group, to expect official redress with a black president. It’s not happening, but his presence is soothing, like honey. After he’s gone how little anything has changed might become more obvious and things might get more volatile…especially if Trump wins (lol…err)

@ Origin thanks for sharing that story. I don’t even like the way this article ended; discussing her depression without providing the full context!

Additionally, the PD should have released the police dash cam videos by now. Instead we’re, as others have also pointed out, seeing the police deflect by targeting Sandra’s other apparent violations. Hoping it buys them enough time to come up with a good lie. They were quick to come out with her committing suicide.. I want to see the full autopsy report!

@Mary: I have a feeling we’ve reached that point. Tensions are high and getting worse. There’s a sinister puppet master at putting this in play. I fear for the end game.

Sometimes I start with a few words but end up having a lot to say. You know when one thing just leads to another. Anyway, I don’t want to derail this thread but I have to comment on that banner image. Wow! I don’t even think it’s unrelated since Sandra Bland was a victim of a modern conduct of the same nature. I’m guessing that’s why abagond put it up.

It’s so revealing to see the white people there, alone, without the strange fruit hanging. That’s a very smart take on it. I’ve seen that picture before, and I’ve noticed the whites in it, but my eyes were always drawn to the strange fruit. They give me tunnel vision. The form and color of the fruit seem strangely familiar.

I always experience a spontaneous moment of silence when I see those pictures. They never once made me smile. But there *they* are, present in the moment, smiling, pointing, and mugging for the camera. It’s cropped off in the banner image but the smiling white man to the left is holding the hand of the woman to the right of him. What a romantic moment! You’d think angels had descended and they were lucky enough to see it. You’d think a popular singer of the day surprised starstruck fans. Would you really have guessed that there were two black men hanging by their necks from a tree?

It was the normal reaction. Way too normal. It was a ritual of sorts. The lynched black men, women or children. The crowd. The posing. The pictures. THAT picture. The post cards. Those postcards. They were VERY popular postcards; a burden to the postal system. They survive to document the grisly reality. Lynching was a spectator sport. Body parts were removed from the victim to be kept as souvenirs. Black history is also REAL white history. That’s why it’s kept quiet.

Here’s a quote from a paper by Harvey Young titled “The Black Body as Souvenir in American Lynching”. You can look it up if you want but I don’t want to trigger moderation with another link.

####################
On 2 April 1899, approximately two thousand white men, women, and children participated, as both witnesses and active agents, in the murder of Sam Hose in Newman, Georgia. Sam Hose was burned alive. In the ﬁnal moments of his life, the assembled crowd descended upon his body and collected various parts of it as souvenirs. The Springﬁeld (Massachusetts) Republican recounted the scene of Hose’s dismemberment in the following manner:

[Newspaper]
Before the torch was applied to the pyre, the NEGRO WAS DEPRIVED OF his EARS, FINGERS and GENITAL PARTS of his body. HE PLEADED pitifully FOR HIS LIFE while the mutilation was going on, but stood the ordeal of ﬁre with surprising fortitude. Before the body was cool, it was cut to pieces, the bones were crushed into small bits, and even the tree upon which the wretch met his fate was torn up and disposed of as “souvenirs.” The negro’s HEART was cut into several pieces, as was also his LIVER. Those unable to obtain ghastly relics direct PAID their more fortunate possessors extravagant sums for them. Small pieces of BONES went for 25 cents, and a bit of LIVER CRISPLY COOKED sold for 10 cents.
[End Newspaper]

Seven months later in December 1899, the New York World, in an article entitled “Roasted Alive,” reported on the similar fate of Richard Coleman in Maysville, Kentucky, before a crowd of “thousands of men and hundreds of women and children.” The article noted that “Long after most of the mob went away little CHILDREN FROM SIX TO TEN years of age carried dried grass and kindling wood and kept the ﬁre burning all during the afternoon.” It also revealed that “Relic-hunters visited the scene and CARRIED AWAY PIECES OF FLESH and the NEGRO’S TEETH. Others got PIECES OF FINGERS and TOES and proudly exhibit the ghastly souvenirs to-night.”

In a 27 February1901 Chicago Record article on the hanging and burning of George Ward before a crowd of four thousand people in Terre Haute, Indiana, the newspaper gave the following account of the scene of Ward’s murder:

[Newspaper]
When the crowd near the ﬁre tired of renewing it after two hours, it was seen that the victim’s FEET WERE NOT BURNED. Someone called an offer of a DOLLAR FOR ONE OF THE TOES and a boy quickly took out his knife and CUT OFF A TOE. The OFFER WAS FOLLOWED BY OTHERS, and the horrible trafﬁc was continued, YOUTHS HOLDING UP TOES AND ASKING FOR BIDS.
[End Newspaper]

Sam Hose, Richard Coleman, and George Ward are three of the more than three thousand black men, women, and children who were lynched across the United States between 1880 and 1930
#################

This wasn’t a few centuries ago during “slavery” folks. Can you imagine what happened then? Do we know even a fraction of the atrocities that took place? How can the perpetrators of CENTURIES of inhumane behavior emerge unsullied? The picture on the banner wasn’t even from the 1800s. That was the 1930s. The strange fruit were Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. They were 18 and 19. The photographer was Lawrence Beitler. He sold thousands of copies of the photo in days. The younger people in the picture became the parents of the early so-called “baby boomer” generation. The mass of white people hadn’t changed by 1964. It’s just that laws were passed – after beatings, assassinations, hosings and dog bites – that shouldn’t have been necessary if all people really had rights.

So what is it about police killings and the wider society’s reaction to them that strike so close to home? Under the legal climate of 2015 police are the ones most likely to get away with killing black people. They’re the ones carrying on that long traditon and many whites (and the media) get behind them by villifying the victims and justifying the killings. Heck, you don’t even have to be a policeman. If you have a shot at killing a black person with impunity white people will help you by donating. They did that for George Zimmerman. It doesn’t matter if the victim was just 17 or 12 years old. It didn’t matter when the banner picture was taken and it doesn’t matter now.

There is no doubt that the United States is still racist but we currently depend on the state to limit the very worst of white behavior. Yet a monster lies just under the surface and in extraordinary circumstances it comes out. Hurricane Katrina, in this millenium, was a touchstone. Black people in New Orleans were LITERALLY trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea. They were fleeing the encroaching waters and running into whites who were shooting at them.

I’m not entirely comfortable because we’re depending on a racist system to protect us from the worst of itself. The state claimed a monopoly on black oppression (police brutality, mass incarceration, etc.) so that whites stay relatively happy but we feel safer from mob violence. Yet it doing so for it’s own self-interest so that it can continue to function without disruption. Is that the final solution? We keep seeing evidence that this is a rather tenuous equilibrium.

The even creepier thing to imagine is that the people in that masthead are more likely than not still alive, never having to befall any consequences for being part of such a heinous event. Sickening. Those white folks look like zombies, emptiness in their eyes, their souls vacant, demonic.

This is typical. The police intentionally put out so many conflicting statements to distract. We’ve unfortunately seen this time and again and the media doesn’t call them out on their BS. I hope social media is vigilant here. Sandra deserves the truth to come out. She should not die in vain.

“More proof that they do not care about black women but how black women can be of service to them. You rarely report or care about black women being killed and do not care to fix it yet u want to use black women to fix ur problem? U want to use black women for medical advancement but yet u are against the advancement of black people? U will use black women like Henrietta Lacks, or that evil guy that used black women for gynecology experiments, but u cannot hear us without calling us angry and bitter. I say f that if we are too angry and bitter to be listened to then we are too angry and bitter to help u. Got us being the mules and the experiments. Then u wanna call us manly, no get some feminine white woman to study they are the standard of beauty after all and isn’t beauty all that matters when u judge women, so why stop now.

All these movies of white saviors and u wanna come to us yet will not portray us as anything more than criminal. if u can portray whites as saviors saving us poor darkies why not save urselves surely if we are too dumb to save ourselves we cannot be of any help to u.” @ms.toogood, My sentiments, exactly!!!

pretty sure it’s technically feasible to use a plastic bag (or a few small ones) to hang yourself, but it’s really not a common method of suicide? I did some googling, also it’s just going to take time for them to release information, espaecially after those two got out of the pen in upstate NY recently

@Mary Burrell
“I feel the time will come when the cops will find a way to keep citizens from using their camera phones.”

Have you ever heard about the case of Tiawanda Moore? An officer touched her inappropriately and she reported it. When she met with police internal affairs they started trying to talk her out of pursuing the complaint so she activated an app on her Blackberry to record what was going on. When they found out they seized her phone, arrested her for felony eavesdropping, and she spent two weeks in the county jail. A jury acquitted her of the charges. Afterward she sued the City and the Chicago Police for violating her first and fourth amendment rights. The link below talks about the case in the context of her lawsuit.

Also, I heard that the dashcam shows that she already received a warning for not signalling but was forced out of her car when she didn’t want to put out a cigarette. Really. I knew that the dashcam footage would show that the cop was just being a brute.

So she’s locked up for no sane reason at all then decides to kill herself while actively trying to make bail. They must think everyone is as dumb as the arresting officer.

With how poorly edited that video was that tells me how stupid the police think the public is. But in all honesty the public has shown them as much. Other cases where white people have blamed the victim with little evidence or even contradictory evidence tells them as much.

The Texas Department of Safety says the video was not edited, that there “were technical problems caused during the uploading process.” They will put out a new (less clumsily edited?) video later today.

Elton Mathis’ attitude and that of the arresting officer tells us all we need to know. Calling Sandra an “it”? Really? He can’t even see her as human.

Having watched the video, there was NO justification for him forcing her out of the car. He wants to arrest her for not putting out a cigarette? He never fully answered Sandra’s question on why she was being arrested. You can hear her talking about him hurting her wrists and dragging her around and then telling her she resisted. This is BS…. Contrast to how he treated the other college student he pulled over.. Like night and day.

FYI: The officer had a right to order her out of the car, despite what the Fourth Amendment says:

Maryland v Wilson (1997):

“The Court held that after lawfully stopping a speeding vehicle, an officer may order its passengers to step out. While burdening their personal liberty somewhat, officers must be permitted such authority over passengers if the overriding government’s interest in officer safety is to be protected.”

@bygodsloveandgrace, Agreed, he made her wait forever in that car on what I know was most likely a mega-arm Southern day, and had the flippin’ gall to act like he didn’t understand her irritation. This blonde bitc# pulled that ish with me at the Canadian border patrol a couple weeks ago, and I nicely/firmly checked her azz by lettin’ her know that anyone in their right mind has the capability to get flustered and irritated when they are being held up for an unusually long (read unreasonable) amount of time when being I.D.’d..SMH

This thing is going to get really, really bad. I hope I am wrong about that, but it is a feeling I have had about this case for days and it does not go away.

I think you’re right. Notice the sly deflection going on though? Since they can’t demonize her as they would normally do in these type of situations they are deflecting by having people focus on, and argue about the traffic stop which was ridiculous at best, rather than what went on at the jailhouse where she died.

And now it starts…I just saw a “Breaking News” banner on Rev. Al’s MSNBC show where the AP is reporting the Bland supposedly told one of her jailers about a previous suicide attempt. Uh huh…sure…right…

“I feel the time will come when the cops will find a way to keep citizens from using their camera phones”.

These are my thoughts as well. I think I mentioned it in this thread where once they get the internet under control, regular citizens will lose the ability to post raw details on the establishment’s enforcers and we’ll lose the ability to counter the highly filtered crap that major news networks pass off as journalism/reporting. There are so many who will continue to think that this is isolated rot until its too late. This includes these Negropeans out here ducking their heads under the sand.

Remember that old kid game called “telephone”? AP is reporting it from “sources” and everybody else is passing it along.

Why not fact check? Whoever leaked it, isn’t interested in the truth. They just want to muddy the waters against Bland.

Here’s another question to add to your good one, if she supposedly told one of her jailers that (yeah right), shouldn’t she have been considered a “suicide risk” which would mean her jailers were under special obligation to protect her from herself?

But thet don’t care about us taking the claim apart, they just want to get it out there” halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on”.

@abagond
“Elton Mathis, the district attorney, calls Sandra Bland “it” and tries to blame her for how the police acted”

I just hope black people don’t let this behavior get us down too much but use it inform what we must do. IMO, a future for us lies in, first, mental separation then physical and economic control of our own resources to be able to provide for coming generations. We didn’t ask to be around whites. They came and built an empire off our backs. Any attempt to live alongside them “peacefully” has failed and will continue to fail because there is only one condition under which whites will tolerate living with anybody: if they spread out like a carpet for their feet.

I think that’s the reason for the palpable uneasiness in 2015. We are not safe anywhere! Whether they are church arsonists, church shooters, economic hitmen, bloodthirsty police, or the just-us system, whites are making our status abundantly clear. If some black people were ignoring the elephant in the room it’s surely making its presence known. With that, the gradual realization that something will need to be done is forming. We took a wrong turn. We should have listened to Marcus Mosiah Garvey or Malcolm X more than Martin Luther King. Now there are few systems in place to affirm us, to cater to us, to PROTECT us. We are just afloat, as individuals, in a deep sea of white racism. We were unjustifiably optimistic that it would have become a puddle by now so we dove in but we were wrong.

Yet we instinctively understand, even if we seldom verbalize it, that whites are our historical enemies and any attempts to improve our situation will not go unopposed. Yet we sense that it is approaching an hour when we can no longer sit back and *hope* for change. We perceive that the boundaries of white behavior towards us are defined only by the extent of our toleration of abuse without retalilation rather than by any humanity on their part. So they will continue to peel away our rights until we stop them. We sense that they’re impossible to rehabilitate and that we’ll have to reach for the sword to defend ourselves. Yet part of us would prefer if that wasn’t necessary.

I’m trying to define, with woefully inadequate sentences, an ominous feeling that exists in nothing as definite as words. Am I speaking for any of you? I don’t know, but I sense it. I feel it gradually permeating the atmosphere of the times. Sistah Souljah spoke eloquently in the clip below in the 90s (?) but it’s still applicable today because, as the comedian Paul Mooney said, “Nothing has changed in America but the weather.”

The cops are ridiculous. They serve power not the people. Whites get abused too but the intersection of brutality and racism means that they’re far more likely to escalate and kill black people. We’re not less powerful people; we’re not people at all; we’re “its”.

My concern with Blacks however is for us to realize that even Black Cops can still be steeped in the corrupt police culture. Sometimes we see a Black officer approaching in our rear view and we kind of sigh in relief.

Just read more on the lying jailer. What sense does it make for a person to tell you they attempted suicide prior, but then you as the jail put in the report she never attempted suicide.

Now they are going to have to find out if she actually had a miscarriage and the medical reports show an attempted suicide and her being under medical surveillance for it. They are creating more things to focus on and more things they will have to research to get their lie straight. smh

@ MzNikita.. Yes. I think the officer was clearly trying to instigate and escalate the situation. He should have just handed Sandra her ticket and been on his way…. Time to now shift focus to what happened to her in that jail cell. They’re already starting to reveal partial information to suggest what led to her “suicide.” I do not like the storytelling the DA is doing now.

Sandra Bland was a true activist and she was down for her people she wanted to help black people fight and it shows how she was “NOT SCARED” she had a defiant spirit. Sadly, many brave soldiers fighting for change loose their lives before the desired results of freedom and change come. May she rest in peace and power. #SayHerName. She was a true black queen.

A Hackers group known as Anonymous is sharing documents that highlight several inconsistencies with how the Waller PD handled Sandra… Should be interesting.. I still don’t have any faith that justice will be served here.

Sandra Bland’s alleged suicide by hanging in a Waller County, Texas, jail cell on July 13 sparked suspicion of foul play from her family members and advocates Bland was 28 years old.

Kindra Chapman died under similar circumstances. The 18-year-old’s death by asphyxiation in a Homewood, Alabama, jail cell was ruled a suicide Monday by a Jefferson County coroner — a conclusion with which Chapman’s family agrees, despite some outside suspicion.

Joyce Curnell, 50, was found dead in a North Charleston, South Carolina, jail cell on July 22. She was arrested for an outstanding bench warrant for shoplifting, and was seen at a local hospital the day before her death.

Ralkina Jones died Sunday by yet undetermined means at a Cleveland Heights, Ohio, jail. Police said she’d looked “lethargic” in her cell beforehand and was being shuttled back and forth from a local hospital the night she died. Jones was 37.

Raynetta Turner, a 43-year-old mother of eight, was found dead in a jail cell Monday in Mount Vernon, New York. Turner, who had been arrested for shoplifting at a food and restaurant supplier, also had multiple medical problems and was taken to a local hospital shortly after her arrest.

Thought I would share a bit of what disgusting things are on Google plus.

“Don’t worry, this will pass just like all the other past media sensations for the past 3 years.

B*** did the crime, but did not want to do the time. Once that weed wore off, her courage level dipped to an all time low, and her enabling family members where not there to rescue her. In her mind all she had left was catch a ride on the Midnight Express, take a seat, open her reading book, and rode it out to it’s last stop.

This all lip chick wrote a check her ass could not cash out. 95% of Black women are like that. They talk shit when they know the government can back up their check writing, but when their White daddy ain’t there for them, they buckle to the pressure.﻿”

Had to edit the b-word. Not sure if a white guy or a black guy, but he started put claiming to be neutral and after a few exchanged with me ended with this.

I’m black and lived in the New England area for 7 years without incident. That’s not to say that others have had a different experience. However, I find your second sentence insulting. You make it sound as if Asians should automatically have it better than Blacks in terms of treatment.
It may not be what you meant but that’s how it comes across.

Update: The grand jury will bring no charges against anyone for Sandra Bland’s death. They heard more than eight hours of evidence. Bland’s mother: “I simply can’t have faith in a system that’s not inclusive of my family.”

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